James 2:8-13

⁸ If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: ⁹ But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. ¹¹ For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. ¹² So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³ For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

The book of Jonah in the Old Testament serves as a helpful illustration regarding the sin of partiality. Jonah despised the people of Nineveh because he saw them as Gentiles and enemies of Israel who were unworthy of a message of repentance from God. He fled to Tarshish instead of going to Nineveh, was swallowed by a great fish, and was given a second chance by God to go and preach to Nineveh. Once the city of Nineveh repented, Jonah sat outside the city angry over what had occurred. God showed Jonah through a plant that His compassion and care for people extended beyond Jonah and Israel to the whole world. In the book of Jonah, we see the heart of God towards a fallen world that is separated from Him because of sin. In the book of Jonah, we see a prophet who was partial toward a people that God desired to extend a message of repentance to.

Today, we can be partial and show favoritism to different people for a variety of reasons. Ethnicity, financial status, where we live, where we are from, how and where our kids are schooled, what car we drive, the house we live in, and many other things are reasons used by people to be partial in how they treat someone and judge someone. If it is possible for us to look down our nose at someone or treat someone differently for a superficial (non-spiritual/non-biblical) reason, then we are good at finding it and exploiting it. Last week, from James 2:1-7, we addressed the problems that partiality brings. It betrays the presence of God, the passion of God, the plan of God, and the people of God. This week, from James 2:8-13, we will examine the consequences and dangers of partiality. There are three perils of partiality we can draw out of this text.

First, there is the danger of violating God’s commands. The law of God is essentially summarized in the two greatest commandments (Matthew 22:38-39). Both of these commands are actually found in the Old Testament in the books of the law (Genesis-Deuteronomy). The first is “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). This summarizes all of the commands regarding one’s relationship to God. The second is “thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Luke 19:18). This command summarizes all of the commands regarding one’s relationship to other people. James appeals to this second command here because partiality deals with how we treat our neighbors. He says that if we show partiality to people then we “are convinced of the law as transgressors.” We have violated the command of God which is to love our neighbor as ourself. To judge and treat someone on the basis of outward appearances or things outside of their control rather than the heart of the person is to find one’s self in violation of the law of God.

The second danger that we find is that violating that command, as with all commands of God, makes us guilty of breaking the entire law. When we sin against “one point” of the law, we become “guilty of all.” The sin of partiality has a great danger and temptation associated with it because it is one of those sins that is so common, and sometimes subtle and hidden to others, that we can fool ourselves into thinking that is okay to slip in this area as long as we are doing most other things right. James does not make it so easy. He essentially says here that if we sin in this way, we have essentially disregarded and broken the entire moral law of God. We have committed murder in the heart when we treat someone this way. 1 John 3:15 says, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” Hate is defined, not as an emotional reaction to someone, but rather as an evil action or motive toward someone. When we show favoritism and mistreat our brother, or despise them in our heart, we have acted in hatred toward them and are guilty of violating God’s command.

The third danger that we find here is that we will be judged by the command of God. Believers are called to live and act according to “the law of liberty.” This phrase has already occurred in James 1:25 and it is a reference to the entirety of God’s will that is revealed in Scripture as something that brings freedom. Jesus said, “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). James points out that, on that basis, believers are called to be those who extend mercy. He is not saying that a person loses their salvation or forfeits God’s mercy by failing to be merciful. Rather, he is saying that those who truly belong to Christ are those who are known by being merciful (Matthew 5:7). For one to continually demonstrate an attitude of favoritism and judgment towards others in the way spoken of in these verses is to demonstrate that a person has never truly known the love and mercy of Christ. Warren Wiersbe once wrote, “Christian love means treating others the way God has treated me.”

How do we treat those around us? Do we judge them for things beyond their control? Do we condemn them for the way they look, where they came from, how they were raised, where they went to school, etc.? Do we avoid people who are different than we are? The answer to partiality is repentance and surrender to our Lord who is impartial. Favoritism is almost as natural to fallen human beings as breathing. It is only by being changed by the amazing grace and mercy of God that we can learn to be humble, meek, and merciful to others (Matthew 5:3, 5, 7). The gospel is for all people. We are surrounded by people who need God’s saving message of salvation proclaimed to them. In the local church, we will be surrounded by people who are different than us. Is there someone in your life that you’ve avoided because there is something external about them that you don’t like? Are there people you have looked down upon because they were raised differently than you?